B-School Job Market Recovers

It’s been two years since business schools experienced the bleakest hiring period for MBA talent in recent memory. Coming off of historic job-placement lows recorded in 2009, many schools reported marginally good news in 2010: Recruiting and job offers had slowly increased. This year might be cause for more emphatic celebration.

What hasn’t returned are signing bonuses. Only eight schools reported increases in this area, while the vast majority said bonuses were flat and six schools reported declines.

Here we list this year’s median salaries and rate of job offers for our 30 top-ranked full-time U.S. MBA programs as they compare with 2010, when schools first started to recover from the financial crisis. Click through to see how the landscape changed in 2011.

Note: Job placement refers to job offers received within three months of graduation. The schools are ranked in order of placement rates, with the best listed first. In case of ties, schools with placement rates that improved the most since 2010 received a higher rank. MIT's Sloan School School of Management did not supply data and was excluded from this slide show.